They would drink their Diet Cokes—he estimated she consumed a dozen every day—while discussing his latest findings. She would nod her head and offer him many compliments and communicate requests that often translated to weaponization. Could the new strain of cellulose be developed into a bark blade? Could the pronounced alkaloids be distilled into an untraceable poison? Was there a way for this sponge to absorb sound, and if so, could it be used for surveillance? What about chitinous armor? Or bullets that could seed growth inside of their targets? And let’s not forget the symbio prototype. Yes, let’s especially not forget that.

The higher-ups had a pronounced interest in the idea of convergence—splicing and threading genes—so that humans (read soldiers) could host alien matter. She often referenced a man named Dr. Thaddeus Gunn, the principal director of their program. She rarely blinked, but whenever his name came up, her eyes snapped shut for a moment, the thick black eyeliner sealing them.

“I haven’t quite cracked it yet,” Isaac said. The symbiote discussion had begun following the discovery of a capuchin monkey in Brazil that had green tendrils subcutaneously rooted and threaded through its fur. It could unleash vines from its arms and legs, employing them like spider silk to swing from branches and net prey. When the monkey was captured and dissected, scientists found what appeared to be a floronic bond that responded to neurological stimuli. The monkey and the plant shared a body and a mind. “I’m trying to be careful.”

“On the one hand,” she said, “I appreciate that. I appreciate you being careful. On the other hand . . . why?”

“Well,” he said, “science demands patience and skepticism. That’s why. During the pandemic, no health expert would say anything definitive about whether a vaccinated person could still spread the virus. Even though there had never been a vaccine that prevented infection but not transmission—”

She cut him off. “But that was stupid of them. They undersold the vaccine as a result and people were hesitant to get it.”

“That’s one way of looking at it. But they didn’t know, and when you don’t know, you shouldn’t pretend to be certain.”

“Wrong. They should have said the vaccine was one hundred percent effective so go out and get it and save the world.”

“Maybe.”

“There are other countries trying to do what we’re doing. Do you know what that means? It means we’re in a race. And winning that race means saving the world.”

“What if we’re not careful and we unleash something that accidentally ends the world?”